Triangle Hotel and Tavern Building

Seattle's Quirky 1910 Flatiron Building, Home of the late Triangle Pub

Seattle's quirky "flatiron" Triangle Hotel and Tavern Building, most recently home of Triangle Pub, designed by architect C. Alfred Breitung, was constructed 1910 for Seattle realtor and financier Victor Hugo Smith at corner of then Railroad Way and Commercial Street (now First Avenue South). With only eight rooms, the Triangle Hotel was once featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not as smallest hotel west of the Mississippi. The tavern lasted until Washington State enacted Prohibition in 1916. The basement became a Western Union Telegraph branch office from 1929 to 1954. At some early point the hotel became a brothel which operated until end of World War II when the building was sold and the new owner evicted the ladies. The Western Union telegraph operators reportedly had a live and let live relationship with the hotel above them, since they worked days and the ladies worked nights.

Following Prohibition the bar reopened, named Jack's Bar by 1934, then Louis Tavern and Lou's Tavern from 1950s to 1975. By 1977 the building was renamed Triangle Hotel and Bar, eventually becoming Triangle Pub. The pub succumbed to the pandemic and closed 2020. Although the Triangle Pub is closed, the eight hotel rooms, converted into two apartments in 1945, still have tenants.

Plans for renovation of the building were filed in 2023 with the Pioneer Square Preservation District Board because the Triangle Building sits within the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District. Renovation plans include returning the building to its historic use as a hotel, albeit a boutique hotel with two hotel suites, above a new Triangle Bar and restaurant.